MSF ends Geo Barents search and rescue operations, but vows to return to the Mediterranean

13 December 2024 

The international medical and humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced today that it has ceased operations on board its rescue vessel, Geo Barents, which had been operational since June 2021. Italian laws and policies have made it impossible to continue with the current operational model. MSF will begin a process to evaluate the best operational model for this challenging environment, promising to return to search and rescue activities.

MSF reaffirms its solid commitment towards people on the move, especially those taking the dangerous journey across the Central Mediterranean Sea, a route where over 31,000 people have died or gone missing since 2014.

“MSF will be back as soon as possible to conduct search and rescue operations on one of the deadliest migration routes in the world.”

We will come back to bear witness and speak out against the violations committed against people on the move by EU members states, particularly by Italy, and the other actors in the area,” says Juan Matias Gil, MSF search and rescue representative.

 

In the past two years, Geo Barents faced four sanctions by the Italian authorities, imposing a total of 160 days detention in port. These sanctions only served to punish the vessel for merely fulfilling the humanitarian and legal duty to save lives at sea. These punitive measures came under the Piantedosi Decree, a law that was introduced by the Italian government in the beginning of 2023. 

In December 2024, Italy further intensified the harshness of the sanctions by making it easier and faster to confiscate humanitarian search and rescue vessels.

The practice of Italian authorities to assign distant ports, frequently in the north, to disembark people rescued at sea has further undermined the capacity of the Geo Barents to save lives at sea and be present where it is needed the most. Since the implementation of the Piantedosi Decree, the Geo Barents has spent half a year navigating to and back from distant ports instead of assisting people in distress. 

In June 2023 the Italian authorities instructed the Geo Barents, which can fit to up to 600 people on board, to head to La Spezia, in the north of Italy, to disembark 13 survivors. This amounted to navigating more than 1,000 kilometres, despite the availability of much closer ports.
 

“After careful consideration, we have come to the conclusion that it is untenable to operate the Geo Barents under such absurd and senseless Italian laws and policies. The rescue capacity of humanitarian vessels is significantly under-utilised and actively undermined by the Italian authorities,” says Gil. 

“Italy’s laws and policies express genuine disregard for the lives of the people crossing the Mediterranean. The stories of tens of thousands of survivors are echoed everywhere on the Geo Barents. Babies have taken their first steps on these decks; people have mourned their loved ones,” says Margot Bernard, MSF project coordinator. “When the European deterrence policies cause so much suffering and cost so many lives, we have the duty to persist in favour of humanity.”